My Trip to Mars

While planning my first trip to the US in seven years and plotting the route ahead on google maps, I discovered The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Southern Utah, and what was meant as a leisurely road trip turned into a more project focused journey. After some research I found out that MDRS is run by the Mars Society and accommodates crews of 7 or 8 for two-week periods during which they conduct research and experiments in a simulated analogue Mars mission at the station outside Hanksville, Utah. I contacted the Mars Society and arranged to visit and document some of their daily activities. My visit was scheduled for the later part of my trip and so after flying into LA I drove to Tucson to see friends I hadn’t seen in years, roam across the Sonoran Desert, hug a cactus and, getting into the mood I visited Biosphere 2 located nearby, which was developed as the second fully self-sufficient biosphere, after Earth itself ("Biosphere 1"). I needed a negative Covid PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to my visit, which I took in Flagstaff 48 hours before being due at MDRS and then drove north towards the station. There wasn’t much leeway for exploration, but there was plenty to see on the way. Some of it I had seen before, but everything changes and nothing is ever the same twice. The route took me through Monument Valley where I stayed for a night and on to Hanksville, with my meeting scheduled for 8am the next morning. Thirty-six hours after my test I was still waiting for the results, and my 72 hour window was shrinking. Finally at 10:30pm that night the negative result arrived and the project could progress. A couple of mishaps had hampered my journey from the beginning, my small Fujifilm X100F had broken down early on and my main Canon lens died on a dirt track in the Sonoran Desert. I was stuck with a very wide 16-35mm lens and my iPhone. But you make do with what you’ve got and armed with those I headed towards Mars the next morning. Out of Hanksville I turned onto a dirt track which I followed for 5 miles until being flagged down by Kris Davidson the Crew Journalist who had come out of analogue simulation to greet and direct me. Soon after I met the rest of the crew and was shown the station. While crews came generally from reputed institutions and carried out valid research and experiments, money was clearly an issue and while the Musk Foundation had sponsored the small observatory which Aline a Launch System Engineer at the European Space Agency showed me, there was scope for improvement. What counted perhaps the most was the willingness of participants to make the most of their time regardless of limited resources. The crew consisted of seven people in total James Burke, commander and Executive Director of The Mars Society and Kris Davidson both from the US, Erin Kennedy a young robotics engineer from Canada, Aline Decadi, crew biologist Cécile Renaud, Julien Villa-Massone phycisist, pilot and crew engineer and medical officer Audrey Derobertmasure from France. All were clearly somewhat obsessed with Mars, though not all were actually willing to go, what connected them was an urge to explore, research and experiment. Their backgrounds and roles were what you would expect from a crew reliant on itself on a different world with no one to call for help. I spend close to three hours being shown around the station, a highlight was Cécile’s greenhouse and biolab where she attempted to grow vegetables in poor “Martian” soil and had photobioreactors to grow edible algae (spirulina) which could be an efficient and reliable method of food production for Mars astronauts. I then witnessed Erin and Audrey getting into their EVA suits to leave the station to test Erin’s wind-powered rover, Atmosphinder. There was a strict protocol that had to be adhered to when leaving the station which was exited via an airlock, in which crew members had to acclimatize for about 5 minutes before stepping outside. The test was a success As we were drifting through the Martian landscape, James and Julien were inside the station trying to locate and retrieve a drone that had crashed in a remote area the day before, an expedition would have to be sent out to collect it. The crew as a whole appeared in good spirit throughout my visit and individuals were supportive of each other to reach their goals. I departed early in the afternoon and began the last leg of my journey to Joshua Tree, CA were I would stay at a friend’s house for a few days before returning to London. This was to be the relaxing part, and what I regret the most in retrospect is that I didn’t have more time there to have a break and stop everything else for a few days.